This invention deals with a device for compacting and containerizing compactible material such as leaves and grass.
In the past leaves, cut grass and other yard materials have been collected and disposed of by raking and bagging these materials in plastic bags. Generally the procedure consists of raking the material into a pile and then stuffing the piled leaves into plastic trash bags either by hand or with the rake or both. The leaves, for example being light weight and somewhat resilient are not actually compacted using this method. A great deal of air is trapped between the leaves such that the amount of leaves in each bag is significantly less than what theoretically could be packed therein. This dictates that many bags must be used to pack a relatively small volume of leaves.
The bagging procedure is also slow since only a small quantity of leaves is insertable in the open trash bags at one time and the bag does not allow entrapped air to escape. Moreover, it is often the case that many leaves do not enter the bag because there may be too many for introduction or some leaves may become caught by the wind and blow away. Raking and bagging is also tedious involving much bending and arm movement. Finally, leaves and other organic materials contained in the plastic bags are not rendered biodegradable which presents significant problems to the manicipality of other government entity charged with the disposal of such materials.
The present invention, on the other hand, permits the compaction and containerization of leaves, grass and other compactible materials with significantly more speed, and less tedium than using the prior raking and bagging procedure and at appreciable materials savings. Material is introduced to the container and displaces air therefrom and in so doing the material is compacted so that the volume of accumulated material approaches its actual volume. Moreover, the contained leaves are maintained in contact with the environment rendering them biodegradable and therefore more easily disposed of by the appropriate government entity.